Jean Gabin
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Jean Gabin | |
|---|---|
 Jean Gabin as Jules Maigret in 1958 | |
| Born | Jean-Alexis Moncorgé 17 May 1904 Paris, France |
| Died | 15 November 1976 (aged 72) Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Years active | 1928–1976 |
| Spouse(s) | Gaby Basset (1925–1930) Suzanne Marguerite Jeanne Mauchain (1933–1939) Dominique Fournier (1949–1976) |
Jean Gabin (French: [ʒɑ̃ gabɛ̃]; 17 May 1904 – 15 November 1976) was a French actor and sometime singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including Pépé le Moko (1937), La grande illusion (1937), Le Quai des brumes (1938), La bête humaine (1938), Le jour se lève (1939), and Le plaisir (1952). Gabin was made a member of the Légion d'honneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema.
Contents
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Gabin was born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe owner and cabaret entertainer whose stage name was Gabin,[1][2] which is a first name in French. He grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise (now Val-d'Oise) département, about 22 mi (35 km) north of Paris. He attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered show business with a bit part in a Folies Bergères production. He continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into the military.
Career[edit]
Early days[edit]
After completing his military service in the Fusiliers marins, he returned to the entertainment business, working under the stage name of Jean Gabin at whatever was offered in the Parisian music halls and operettas, imitating the singing style of Maurice Chevalier, which was the rage at the time. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and upon returning to France found work at the Moulin Rouge. His performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928.
Two years later Gabin easily made the transition to sound films in a 1930 Pathé Frères production titled Chacun sa chance. Playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. However, he only gained real recognition for his performance in Maria Chapdelaine, a 1934 production directed by Julien Duvivier. He was then cast as a romantic hero in a 1936 war drama titled La Bandera; this second Duvivier-directed film established him as a major star. The following year he teamed up with Duvivier again, this time in the highly successful Pépé le Moko. Its popularity brought Gabin international recognition. That same year he starred in the Jean Renoir film La Grande Illusion, an anti-war film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. This was followed by another one of Renoir's major works: La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast), a film noir tragedy based on the novel by Émile Zola and starring Gabin and Simone Simon, as well as Le Quai Des Brumes (Port of Shadows), one of director Marcel Carné's classics of poetic realism. He was divorced from his second wife in 1939.
Hollywood[edit]
In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood; for a time he turned them all down, until the outbreak of World War II. After the German occupation of France in 1940, he joined Jean Renoir and Julien Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich which lasted until 1948.[3] However, his films in America – Moontide (1942) and The Impostor (1944), the later reuniting him with Duvivier – were not successful.
World War II action[edit]
Undaunted, he joined General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces and earned the Médaille militaire and a Croix de guerre for his wartime valor fighting with the Allies in North Africa. Following D-Day, Gabin was part of the military contingent that entered a liberated Paris.
Career slump[edit]
He was hired by Marcel Carné in 1945 to star in the film Gates of the Night with Marlene Dietrich as his co-star. She disliked the screenplay and feared that her German accent would not go over well with post-war French audiences. When she withdrew from the project, Gabin followed suit, leading to a falling out with Carné. He found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Dietrich together, but their film Martin Roumagnac was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended. Gabin starred in a poetic realist film directed by René Clément, The Walls of Malapaga (Au-delà des grilles), in 1948, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture but garnered little recognition for Gabin. In 1949 he starred in his only role in legitimate theatre in playwright Henri Bernstein's La Soif. It ran successfully in Paris for six months, with Gabin winning critical praise as "a first-rate stage actor." Despite this recognition, his subsequent films did not do well at the French box office, and the next five years brought little more than repeated failures.
Comeback[edit]
His career seemed headed for oblivion. However, in the 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi (Don't Touch the Loot), directed by Jacques Becker, Gabin's performance earned him critical acclaim. The film was very profitable internationally. He then worked once again with Jean Renoir in French Cancan, with María Félix and Françoise Arnoul. Gabin played Georges Simenon's detective Jules Maigret for three films in 1958, 1959 and 1963. Over the next 20 years, he made almost 50 more films, most of them very successful commercially and critically, including many for Gafer Films, his production partnership with fellow actor Fernandel. His co-stars included leading figures of post-war cinema such as Brigitte Bardot (En cas de malheur), Alain Delon (Le Clan des Siciliens, Mélodie en sous-sol and Deux hommes dans la ville), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Un singe en hiver) and Louis de Funès (Le Tatoué).
Death[edit]
Gabin died of leukaemia at the American Hospital of Paris, in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. His body was cremated, and—with full military honours—his ashes were scattered at sea from a military ship.
Legacy[edit]
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- He is considered one of the greatest stars and an important figure in the French cinema, and was appointed Officier de la Légion d'honneur.
- In 1981, French actor Louis de Funès initiated the Prix Jean Gabin, a film accolade presented to upcoming actors working in the French film industry. It was awarded annually between 1981 and 2006.
- The Musée Jean Gabin—in the commune of Mériel, where he grew up—narrates his story and features his film memorabilia.
- The Place Jean Gabin was inaugurated on 16 May 2008 by Daniel Vaillant, the then mayor of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, and Jean Gabin's children. It is located on the corner of rue Custine and rue Lambert, at the foot of Montmartre.
- The Cinema Jean Gabin in Montgenèvre was named after him. Montgenèvre claims to be the oldest ski resort in France, and was a popular holiday destination for Jean Gabin and other French artists and intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre.
Filmography[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Lafitte, Jacques; Taylor, Stephen (1969). Qui est qui en France. J. Lafitte.
- ^ "Jean Gabin – Actors and Actresses – Films as Actor:, Publications". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- ^ Marlene Dietrich und Jean Gabin – Ein ungleiches Liebespaar Archived 27 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine 21 January 2013, 50 Jahre deutsch-französische Freundschaft, Deutsch-französische Paare. Arte TV (German)
- ^ "Berlinale 1959: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- ^ "Berlinale 1971: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
Further reading[edit]
- Jean-Michel Betti: Salut, Gabin! Ed. de Trévise, Paris 1977.
- André Brunelin: Gabin Herbig, München/Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-7766-1499-4; Ullstein TB 36650, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-548-35650-8.
- Claude Gauteur: Jean Gabin. Nathan, Paris 1993, ISBN 3-453-86038-1.
- Jean-Marc Loubier: Jean Gabin, Marlène Dietrich: un rêve brisê, Acropole, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-7357-0216-2.
- Eine unvollendete Liebe. Marlene Dietrich und Jean Gabin. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 52:30 Min., Book and directed by Daniel Guthmann, Christian Buckhard, Production: DG Filmproduktion, WDR, arte, first shown: 9 February 2013, arte. contains interviews with Louis Bozon and Jean-Jacques Debout, and Gabin's children Florence and Mathias.
Joseph Harriss: "Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France." McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2018 ISBN 978-1-4766-7627-2
External links[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jean Gabin. |
- Jean Gabin on IMDb
- Jean Gabin at AllMovie
- The Jean Gabin Museum of Mériel
- website in Italian language
- 1904 births
- 1976 deaths
- Deaths from cancer in France
- Deaths from leukemia
- French male film actors
- French male singers
- French male silent film actors
- Male actors from Paris
- French military personnel of World War II
- Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
- Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni
- Volpi Cup for Best Actor winners
- Volpi Cup winners
- David di Donatello winners
- Columbia Records artists
- Silver Bear for Best Actor winners
- 20th-century French male actors
- 20th-century French singers
- 20th-century male singers
